"How Many Solar Panels Do I Need For My House ?" - Read This Now!
Author: Jason Gilford
If it happens to be that you are interested about "how many solar panels do I need for my house ?", then you definitely need to read this quick article - it is going to radically change your current thinking about harnessing the sun's power. If you heard that you could get your hands on state-of-the-art solution which gives you the power to change solar power into useable electrical power at a budget you can easily afford - you'd be curious, wouldn't you? Keep reading the following article.
Before the new technology came along, taking the leap into solar-generated power for your home electricity was seen as an undertaking that was out of the reach of most people, yet for many it remained something to aspire to. "how many solar panels do I need for my house ?" are now popular keywords for web searches, which demonstrates the fact that there is an increasing number of people with questions about what is possible in the realm of solar energy.
The latest news in this field is that converting to solar power has become easy and best of all, it's easy on the bank account. so you too can have an absolutely free and unlimited home power supply. This 'green' energy source has been used to a limited extent for years, but few people had the money to invest in getting set up with it; so we continued to have our home electricity supplied by the local power company, wasting hard-earned money on a basic need.
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Solar Panel Question?
My Grandparents still live in their ranch. I am trying to find out how to get them a solar panel system as a main source for their electricity.
The house is a small 2 bedroom with about 4 or 5 lighting fixtures and about 4 or 5 duplex receptacle outlets.
The one machine they might have a problem with is the water pump that draws water out of the well, but I think that the one they use is gas operated.
My question is how many low cost/efficiency panels do they need, as well as marine batteries and the type of power inverter.
Also, I have heard of different wiring method that can help wattage or amperage. I believe they are called wiring in series and I forgot the other method. Anyway, would it make a difference?
Thank You.
Are Amorphous Solar Panels efficient solar panels to buy?
I live in El Salvador and want to buy solar panels to install in my home. I need to generate 50kw of electricity a month. There is a Sunforce kit that sells for $250 which states the following:
•Max Output 60 Watts 4 Amps
•Battery NOT included
•Includes the following:
1.4 x 15 Watt Amorphous Solar Panels
2.Plastic PVC Frame for mounting panels
3.12V DC Plug, Alligator Battery Clamps, Mounting screws & extra wiring
4.4 in 1 wire connector so that all 4 panels can be wired together in an easy fashion
5.12V DC Socket for powering 12V Products
6.200 Watt Modified Sine Wave Inverter
7.7 Amp Solar Charge Controller
•Dimensions: (L x W x H) 41″ x 13 1/4″ x 16 1/4″
104 x 33.5 x 41.5 cm
Weight: 63.4 lbs
Then there is the option of installing a 85watt Polycrystalline installed for $1000 dollars. Would this generate the amount of energy that I need? if not how many would I have to buy? I have 200 square feet of usable surface area which recieves 6 hours of direct sunlight a day. Would I need to buy anything else to install the kit? Has anyone ever used a Sunforce product and are they any good. What are the pros and cons of the 2 systems? Can I connect 2 batteries to the sunforce system and what changes if any would I have to make if I did?
Hey Edwin, I have to go with Roderick, my numbers are just slightly different than his. Accounting for everything else, including efficiencies of an inverter and losses in battery charging, My estimate is something closer to 500 total watts of solar. That amount of panels would fit easily in your 200 square foot space. As a further example, consider our home, it uses about 5 kwh per day, and we generate about 80% of our energy with a 1.6 kw array (1600 watts total solar). Our entire array only takes up about 175 square feet. Again, I agree with Roderick, that this might not be the answer you were looking for, but it’s pretty honest and straight forward. It sounds like you know basically what you’re trying to do and how to get there, just fuzzy on the numbers. What I would suggest is you buy a subscription to Home Power Magazine. Once you subscribe, you have access to all their archived issues, and in several of them they have listed all he commercially available panels, who manufacturers them and their specs. It’s a great place to comparison shop if you can find the right back issue at the website.
J, I think you might have an extra decimal somewhere in your calculations, a 6800 watt array would run our entire home and the two neighbors on each side, certainly way more than Edwin would need at 1.7 kwh per day. But your descriptions of the other accessories sounds fine to me.
I would also add that personally, I don’t care for the sunforce products. I think they work fine from a photovoltiac perspective, but mechanically I don’t think they stand up against many of the other products available, and you can probably find a better deal if you shop around. The big advantage to that package is its ease of installation, with all the wiring harnesses already made up for you, but in the end, if you do some more research, you could have a better working overall system for the same money. You will need something in the 400 to 500 total solar watts range to make the power you need, that might be a good starting point for getting a better look at your budget. Take care Edwin, Rudydoo
Need help on solar power charged battery project.?
I’m trying to push 1600W for 8 hours every day using ten 12V [solar]batteries (120V) . Then I’m planning on using a solar panel array to charge the batteries during off-time.
I figure I would draw 13 Amps to juice 1600W.
I found a deep cycle battery that runs 12 Volts at 100 Amp-Hours which would give me a 1200 Watt-Hour capacity (more than enough). Additionally, I figured that I could run for 8 hours using 13 Amps at 120 Volts.
These specs seem to provide for my needs as I’m looking at installing 10 of these batteries (12V) in a series to give me 120V total output while able to run for 8 hours at a time.
The question is, how do i measure the amount of output needed by solar powers to re-charge the batteries to full? I saw a 125W 12V Solar Panel, how many of these do I need? And also, using this math, how much sunlight-time would I need to fully charge the batteries using the solar panels?
I understand I can always oversupply, but I want to remain cost efficient. Thanks.
The output of solar panels (photo voltaic arrays) is specified in watts. They can be connected in series and parallel like any other source. You will need a charge controller to handle the battery charging correctly. See attached links:
Off interest:
http://www.southwestpv.com/Catalog/Solar%20Modules/BP%20Solar%20modules.HTM
http://www.morningstarcorp.com/products/SunSaver/SunSaver.shtml
Need help with solar power charged battery project.?
I’m trying to push 1600W for 8 hours every day using ten 12V [solar]batteries (120V) . Then I’m planning on using a solar panel array to charge the batteries during off-time.
I figure I would draw 13 Amps to juice 1600W.
I found a deep cycle battery that runs 12 Volts at 100 Amp-Hours which would give me a 1200 Watt-Hour capacity (more than enough). Additionally, I figured that I could run for 8 hours using 13 Amps at 120 Volts.
These specs seem to provide for my needs as I’m looking at installing 10 of these batteries (12V) in a series to give me 120V total output while able to run for 8 hours at a time.
The question is, how do i measure the amount of output needed by solar powers to re-charge the batteries to full? I saw a 125W 12V Solar Panel, how many of these do I need? And also, using this math, how much sunlight-time would I need to fully charge the batteries using the solar panels?
I understand I can always oversupply, but I want to remain cost efficient. Thanks.
I’m interested in this myself Solar power that is.However I am pretty much a noob Anyways I found this site Hope it answers your question:http://solar.wiseowlnetworks.us/Current_Solar_Production.htm
what do I need to get started to do solar power for my home?
I am going to build my panels, I do not how many I need nor do I know how many battery’s I need, also inverter. Can you give me the answers? I have a 2 bedroom home with 2 bathrooms. A shop with plenty power tools. 2 ref and 2 freezers,washer and dryer also. What am I going to need?
Thanks
OK – some rules of thumb:
10 watts per square foot, unless you go to amorphous-crystal cells – then you may get up to 15 watts per square foot.
Storage should be three times (3 x) the average load in your house. The average load may be calculated from your appliances, frequency of use, lighting load and heating load.
Your solar panels must be able to deliver at least 2 x your average load in order to actually store power as well as meet your needs.
Commercial installations less subsidies are typically $10/watt, fully installed + storage but including the inverter. Subsidies will cover most of this in some locations. So check your area.
So: if you have an electric stove, electric dryer, general lighting and a shop with various 20A motors, television, freezers, refrigerators and so forth – 50A max on the stove. 25A on the dryer, 25A on the water heater – allow 40A for everything else. comes to 140A peak – average (rule-of thumb) is about half that. 70A. You are a heavy electric user as compared to most individuals.
At 220V, that comes to 15,400 watts. Times two, and rounding comes to 30,000 watts of capacity required to meet 100% of your needs or 30KW. Roughly 3,000 square feet (30 square meters) of panels.
Battery Storage at using 100AH batteries comes to (working backwards and allowing a 15% inverter loss and not wanting to kill your batteries) – will require forty (40) 12V storage batteries in parallel.
And why it is that most installations are to supplement power only – and not replace 100% of the requirements.
You are looking at an unsubsidized cost of around $100,000 +/- if you do 100% of the labor yourself. About $8,000 in the storage system alone. And if you do this yourself, you will not get any subsidies.
How big of a solar power setup do i need to be able to run a laptop & a 60w low energy light bulb constantly?
I’m looking for details such as how many solar panels, batteries, etc. that I would need in order to run my laptop and an energy efficient light when I am up north staying in a cabin that has no hydro access. I want to be able to have power (not including the laptop’s battery) to plug it in and run it all day and night and have a lightbulb (maximum 60w) running as well, possibly in the daytime if it’s cloudy outside, so to be safe I want enough power in the system to be able to use those two things whenever I want, and for as long as I want without worrying about the power running out.
If your laptop power consumption is considered as 50W and T5 Tube Light of 28W are considered to be used day and night(which means 24hrs),you require appx. 2000Wh Energy and considering 3days autonomy(to even work for 3 non-sun shine days),you may require as 100% solar power generating system which may cost around Rs.3Lakhs and if 50% solar and 50% hybrid system can cost Rs.2.5Lkahs(hybrid system is recommended provided average wind speed in your location is more than 2.5metres per second)
If you can check exact power consumption of your laptop(or let know the model number and make) and also let know your interest to use energy efficient LED Lighting,so as power consumtion can be brought down and hence solar/solar&wind sysetm cost….please feel free to contact me on +91 92464 75056 or solarsarma@gmail.com
How many solar panels?
OK – I want to put my green house on 100% solar – what do I need to know about solar panels and what do I look for?
Then I was curious about my home – if I wanted to offset some costs what do I look for. I see lots of kits just don’t know which to get.
Lastly – storage can you store solar energy in a battery of some sort.
There are lots of books you can get at the library for free or at amazon.com that go into the detail you need to be self-sufficient in greenhouse growing with only solar heat or electric for a source.
The problems arise in the winter. Often the sun is out with any intensity for only around 5 hours in dec-jan. The electricity production or generation of solar heat are very low during these months. Also the glass used in a greenhouse is very low in insulative properties so it loses more heat than it gains especially during the long nights.
What you need is some extras. Maybe a wood fired heater in the greenhouse, or a windmill if you have any windpower in the winter in your region.
You may also want to consider slide on insulating coverings. These would be either foam panels or fiberfill batts that you can slide over your glass at night to help retain heat much better.
There is a magazine I’ve been getting for 30 years that is now online and gives many many stories of self sufficiency in energy (and food, home and work for that matter). They have many articles in their archives for making greenhouses and solar panels and solar heated water.
Solar heated water is the most cost effective and best use of the sun’s energy in comparison to solar electric panels. In a greenhouse you are worried about heat more than electricity. A 3000 btu heater in solar might only cost $200. To make enough electricity to run a 3000 btu heater in electric might cost $2,000 and be more complicated and need batteries and so forth.
With solar heat you can just heat up a big tank of water during the day, with some black painted glass covered panels and blow the stored heat over some large rocks or bubble thru some water and let the stored mass give off it’s heat during the night. (You still need to cover the greenhouse with some roll-on roll-off insulation panels.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Renewable-Energy.aspx
how many solar panels do i need to power up my house?
does anyone know how many pannels, batteries and the rating for charge controler and power inverter needed to power up a 3 bedroom house, meaning to run all your electrical lights and equipment?
Hey Martin, Shane may be close on the numbers, but it is all just a guess without knowing more about your house and your weather. You see, asking a question like yours is no different than asking, “How much gas does it take to run a car?” It depends on the car, the miles it is driven, driving habits, and so on. We have a home in the Northern Great Lakes that is completely powered by the wind and sun. The solar array is our primary power source, probably providing about 80% of our needs, more in the summer. Although our house is small, about 1200 square feet, and fairly efficient, our array fits nicely on the roof of our single car carport, maybe taking up 180 square feet, nothing nearly the size of a football field. All of our equipment cost just under $15,000, including the batteries. Today, if you can take advantage of net metering in your area, you don’t need batteries or charge controllers, but you do need utility power. The grid becomes your battery in this arrangement. The only drawback is if the power grid goes down for any reason, you solar array goes with it. So you might find yourself in a situation where the sun is out, and you do not have access to the power in your own solar array. This can be frustrating to new owners.
My best suggestion is you get a subscription to Home Power Magazine, they are the only periodical that get into the nuts and bolts of what you are asking about. There are some good websites as well, I will list a few below. Don’t waste your time asking hacks like me online for information, you get answers like football fields and barrels of money which distort the real facts. You can read about people who have done exactly what you are trying to do in the magazine articles, check out suppliers websites that advertise there and learn a great deal. In the end, you might decide not to get involved, and that’s fine, but at least you will be well informed.
If you’re a handy type and can do some basic wiring, I would suggest you start by getting one panel, a couple golf cart batteries and some DC breakers and switches and set up your own 12 volt power system. We did 12 years ago, even put 12 volt outlets in all the rooms. They still work today and continue to be handy for small electronics and lights. If you subscribe to Home Power, you can go online to their website and look up archived articles from years past. Our home was even featured in one some time ago. Use their search engine to look up, “Starting Small First,” if you want to see it. I would also suggest going to an energy fair if you’re really interested after looking all this up, they are listed in the magazine as well.
For comparison purposes, I will give you the specs on our homes system you were asking about above. This is the equipment necessary to run our home, with a little help from the utility company. Our electric bills average just under $5 per month.
Solar: 14 Kyocera KC-120 panels, total solar power 1.6 KW
Wind: Southwest Windpower H-40,. peak power 900 watts
Inverter: Trace Engineering SW-4024 4000 watts continuous, 10,000 watts surge limit
Batteries: Trojan L-16 model 360′s, 20 total storing 1800 amp hours at 24 volts DC
Take care, and good luck, Rudydoo
I want to run solar power and do not know how to get started?
I am looking to live off-grid and would like to conveniences of home. I would like to have a light or 2. Run my computer, maybe tv and dvd. My question is how do i decide how many watt panel to get? My preference is to be portable meaning easy to move around. I have looked at the folding solar panel but I really do not know what I am looking for. Also, if anyone know of a great do-it-yourself website that will tell me all the pieces I need. Like I know that I need a battery, what else???
Thank you for all input it is greatly appreciated.
what should i be looking for in solar panels?
i am building a cheap home soon and i want it to be able to be self sufficient as in collect its water has solar energy and so on and so forth essentially a off the grid house though i intend to sell extra energy to the electrical company
so i am wondering what kind of solar panels should i be looking for what do i need for them as in for one person how many battery’s do i need every thing will be electric stove heater water heater so on so forth i don’t know how much energy i use regularly but i have to say its a fair assumption to say that its allot as my job is computer based so the computer is almost all ways on and some times even more than one is running plus tv and all that good stuff so what kind of things should i be looking for in a solar panel and what kind of electrical storage unit should i get also how much do you think it will cost
Hi there.
The logic behind how a solar panel works is very simple,
I mean it doesn’t take Newton to understand that it’s just about storing sun’s energy, store it into a battery and use it.
So building a solar panel shouldn’t be that hard either right?
I guess the number of panels you need depends on the number of people in your household and the power of the sunlight you can get at your place.
A single solar panel can generate up to 200 watts per day if you have some good quality sunlight.
If you didn’t find it out yourself, it is very expensive to buy a solar panel. But if you do some research you can find out that you can make your own solar panel at about 200 dollars per panel. That’s like saving a lot of money!
I’m not sure about whether or not you can sell your electricity, but if you are interested in a fully step by step guide on how to make a solar panel you can check
http://solar-energy.yolasite.com
It’s not like you need to have a master degree in engineering to be able to make a solar panel lol, I definitely recommend you making your own panels at home if you have some free time.
Good luck
how many watt hours does 24 red leds use at 12v?
I am trying to build a light to go under my hog feeder…I have two trailer lights with 12 red leds in each one. I bought a 12v rechargable battery and want to hook it up a solar panel for maintenece free operation. I need to know how big of a solar panel I need to charge the battery fully each day. I don’t want too big of a solar panel becuz of exspense and don’t want too small panel that won’t do the job. Plz help.
Take your two leads from your trailer lights and use a cheap multimeter with an ohm meter on it and measure the ohms of resistance thru your 24 LED’s.
Let’s say for example you get 3 ohm’s of resistance you get in the circuit ( no battery or solar charger hooked in the circuit..this is just plain resistance of your wires and leds)
The formula for this is voltage = current in amps * resistance in ohms
In this example of 3 ohms resistance:
12V = amps * 3 ohm
amps = 4 amps
watts = volts * amps
watts = 12V * 4 amp = 48 watt panel required for this resistance
If I use 2 x 50 watt/12v solar panels, how many ampers does my charge controller need to be?
I will use 2 panels of 50 watts each to charge a car battery off grid and generate enough electricity to recharge cell phones, AAA batteries or 3.5v 400mA batteries for example.
I would like to know what kind of charge controller and inverter I should get.
Thanks!
Your panels should be paralleled. That will yield 12 volts at approximately 8.2 amps (100 watts). Since a car battery is already 12 volts nominal, you should be able to charge the battery directly from the solar array without need for any type of inverter.
Be sure to put a fuse inline with the solar array and also inline with any device you plan to attach to the car battery. These batteries can deliver massive amounts of current very quickly and can easily start fires if you do not properly fuse your lines.
How do I attach an LED bulb to a solar panel, battery and a switch?
This seems simple enough but nobody knows how to do it. I need to make a lighting system for a boat. I want it to be solar powered. All I need is a way to get a solar panel attached to a battery for storage and then a switch so I can turn it on at night. The boat is wired for battery power and I have yet to find a simple lighting system that I can just make my own light fixture for. There are so many choices if I want it for a garden but for marine applications they will rust. please help,.
I am not trying to sound rude. If it comes off that way sorry.
You are right, It is simple, If you know what you are doing. Your question going un-answered so long just proves that most people are just here to talk smack about solar electric. I have noticed that very few people that answer these questions have even seen a solar power system in real life. I have systems in ranches in Texas. On house boats in Washington DC on homes in Arkansas, So this is a very very simple setup to me. But most would have no idea.
Pick a battery that can handle the power drain and then just get a solar panel of the size you need to charge the size of battery you have. Then get a charge controller that will be large enough handle the solar power you will be putting on it.
Amp hours of the battery times .05 will give you how many amps in solar panels you need if you picked your battery right compaired to the usage.
Use this number times 12 volts and you will have how many watts in solar panels you need. The charge controller is rated by amps and volts. Get a charge controller that will be able to handle the amps. Use the total amps of the solar panels times 1.25 to get the minium controller size.
Now go to a hardware store and buy you some wires large enough to handle the current of the system and a simple switch and box to turn the light on and off with. You will want to correctly size the fuses for the system.
Even if someone was to tell you step by step how to do it you will still have to know something about it. Or you are just shooting in the dark trying to hit the target.
Can Solar Panels Power My Whole House-Including A/Cs?
Hello, I’d really appreciate some input on the subject of solar power panels. I’ve ready a lot and I’ve learned a lot in the recent months by Googl’ing and I realize it’s a big undertaking and in order to generate a small amount of KWH it takes a lot of hardware/installation. I’ve been very interested for some time in this subject, not so much for my needs here in California (where my average monthly electrical bill is roughly $65, even when I run the A/C in my studio from time to time), but more for the time I spend in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where electricity is about 10 times as expensive and where the price per KWH increases every 2 months.
My question is; how realistic would it be to attempt to power a house in Brazil using solar panels? Of course it would be preferable to completely power the house with solar power, though partial solar power would also be helpful. It is hot in Rio 9 months out of the year (sometimes even all year long), and when it’s hot there is plenty of sun. The cost of electricity is so high in Brazil (roughly 6 times higher than the US…and it goes up every 2 months or so) making it unaffordable to run A/Cs for most people.
1. Is there any way that I could run between 3-5 wall A/C units in a house, or one central A/C unit for the whole house (all day and all night) as well as to run the rest of the house’s appliances (fridge, freezer, TVs, computers, lights, etc) using solar panels? I realize I’m asking a lot and I’m not sure how many KWHs it would require to run all of the above-mentioned, but is there a chance it could be done by only using the roof of the house as the resting area for the panels? If so, how much would it cost in hardware/installation to generate that much electricity?
2. I’ve seen solar panel systems on TV shows that apparently generate DC and then it gets converted to AC and then something else happens so that it can be used directly for the house…and when there is an excess of electricity, it feeds that solar-generated electricity back into the city electricity which turns back your meter. I have also seen systems that have battery arrays that are charged from the solar panels and then the house is run off of the batteries. Which of these 2 methods is best? (In my case, there may be one month where we’re not at the house and one month where we are…could the “off months” be used to store generated electricity?)
3. Does anybody know if it would be better to seek to purchase solar panels in Brazil, or cheaper to import them from another country?
4. Has anyone heard of the SolCool Solar-Powered A/C? http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/07/16/solcools-solar-air-conditioners/ could this be a solution for those of us seeking to power A/Cs from solar panels?
Thank you for taking your time to read this. Looking forward to your answers!
Thank you to all for your good answers and input. Is there any way that I can add answers (to your answers) or further comments to this thread?
Woah…way to much info for a question…so I’m going to write my answer based on JUST the question and not the book of additional information you posted.
My understanding is no, solar power isn’t there yet. However, you could greatly reduce your energy costs by supplementing your home with solar power. How much really depends on where you live. For example, in the arctic Minnesota area where I am from, solar would not be the greatest thing. We get a lot of snow fall in the winter (thus covering the solar panels till they could be cleaned off) and we have some very short days in the winter with a lot of overcast days (thus reducing or eliminating the effectiveness).
I think it would still be a worthwhile investment if you plan to live in the home long enough to allow the solar panels to pay for themselves.
What kind of battery do I need?
I just got my first solar-panel starter kit, and I want to use it for my light, so I have to have a battery for it.
The panels are 12 volt, 65 watt.
What kind of battery/batteries, and how many lights can I have on it?
My mistake, it is 60 watt, not 65, and there are 4 panels, I do not know if they are 60 what each, or total.
IGNORE EVERYTHING BEFORE THIS…..
Ok. here are the facts.
4 15 watt solar panels, for a total of 60 watts.
1 200 watt inverter.
1 regulator/controller
I also have 1 75 watt inverter, and 1 800 watt inverter that did not come with the kit.
The only things on them will be lights, and 1 outlet when the power is out, the outlet will be on the main line when we do have power, the lights will be on solar all the time.
What kind of batteries can I use, and how many lights can I have on it?
What kind of batteries do I need, how many, and how many lights can I have on it?
I am also open to ideas on how to hook everything up. I think I know how to do it, but others have already done this sort of stuff, so it would be smart to get ideas from them.
First off, for solar applications it is imperative to use deep cycle batteries (ie. batteries that offer a regulated power output over a relatively long time without needing a charge cycle often, typically used in marine, RV and solar/wind/hydro models) Deep cycle batteries, unlike starter batteries (which are usually found in automobiles) can be run down to 50% of capacity and charged back up with little to no degradation of internal chemicals (mainly lead).
Next, with the panels you would be using you can accrue 60 total watts of power per hour of sunlight you obtain. So as you can see we are in a bit of a guesstimation game in which you need to hypothesize how much sun you expect. For this model we will use a even 5 hours daily. Obviously, in practical application it will be a lot less neat but….
So if you get 5 hours of sunlight at 60watts/hr than on a day to day basis you have a total of 300watt/hrs per day to play with. Now due to efficiency recommendations of 50% discharge of deep cycle batteries you would want to have approximately a 12 V 600 watt battery (or 2 X 300 watt, etc.)
Now if you wanted to power your lighting system solely off the 300watt/hrs generated by your solar panels and you have to power the lighting for 8 hours (whatever the amount of darkness is) then you take your 300watt/hrs divided by total time needed to run the system (8 hours for this hypothetical) equals 37.5 watts of power available for each of those 8 hours. I would recommend running no more than 30 watt lighting on your current inverter setup.
Hope this was helpful,
Shawn
Questions about DV volts to AC volts conversions and how this applies to wattage?
I have some basic questions about DV volts to AC volts conversions and how this applies to wattage. Here is where I will begin I took some of those solar lawn lights removed the PV panels, connected them together and get 15 -18 DCVs but its not enough to even power a single item the runs off of say 12 DC volts. This is because of wattage? I have a digital volt ohm meter and do not know how to test for wattage or amps. I do see mili amps on it I guess but not sure. If a guy was to take a solar panel the could produce say 60 watts how many 12 volt batteries would be needed to power 2 or 3 items that use 120 volts and get converted down to 12 volts. You know like cordless phone charges, routers things like that. So if I have say 4 item on my computers routers etc. how many 12 volt batteries and a panel of what wattage would I need to keep the items running 24 hours a day?
Thanks for your help in advance
Vince
Its not going to happen with solor lawn lights. you need the real deal which is thousands of dollars
How do I get a certain Voltage and a certain Amperage out of so many watts from solar power?
I want to make a solar panel that is 12V D/C. I want all the amps i can get because my end goal is to power my house, or at least tie the power into the house. Here are the details as to what I (think I) know:
A house runs off of 120V A/C and about 200 Amps. I know you can invert D/C to A/C, but i dont know what that does to effect total power. I know I could plug a 1000W inverter to a car battery and run a stereo or whatever. I have little knowledge on basic electronics, such as Amps X Volts=Watts, and watts = power. But when it comes down to series and parallel wiring, the only thing I think I know is that when you wire something in series, it doubles the voltage at each junction, and if you wire something in parallel, it doubles amperage. But maybe im wrong, maybe they dont double, but they increase, and depending on the resistance amount, will be the amount they increase.
Anyway, I dont want to get into everything I know and dont know, I just want to try to find out how to get my goal voltage and aperage (120V A/C @ 200 Amps) from solar panels. Here is the data that i DO have:
Each solar cell has a wattage rating of about 1.75W. This is with an output .5V @ about 3.5 amps through a multimeter. I was thinking of making a full panel consisting of 120 cells in rows of 10, columns of 12. Each vertical column (12 cells), when wired in series would output 6V D/C @ 3.5 amps, with a total of 10 columns. If every 2 columns were wired in series, it should be an output of 12V D/C @ 3.5 amps per 2 columns. Now I have 5 modules that are at a good voltage rating to input to an inverter, so i dont want to increase the voltage anymore, just the amps. So each of these 5 modules would then need to be wired in a parallel circuit which technically should add 3.5 amps for each module, totalling 17.5 amps and leaving the voltage at 12V. This should be the final output of the solar panel. 12V D/C @ 17.5 amps.
Now, this is where i get lost (unless I have already, then someone needs to help me with my electricity knowledge)… I am also under the impression that amps are amps, no matter D/C or A/C. So i would guess that my next step would be to make enough 12V panels @ 17.5 amps each, to wire them parallel to equal 200 amps (household amperage). So this would be a little under 11.5 panels. Here in-lies another question, can I have more than 200 amps? Such as making it an even 12 panels to equal 210 amps? or does it have to be exactly 200? Alright, moving on, then I would have a total of 11.5 (or 12) panels equalling 12V D/C @ 200+/- Amps. This would be a total of 2.4kW or 2400 watts if I multiply voltage times amps, which would mean I would need at least a 2400W power inverter (grid tie inverter) for the system. But what confuses me is if I convert all that D/C power to A/C, what does that do to my voltage and amperage? I know it increases (or inverts I SHOULD say) the 12V D/C to 115-120V A/C, but do the amps honestly stay the same? They couldnt possibly, or it would make the wattage about 24,000W. Or is A/C amperage truly different than D/C and would it reduce it to 20Amps to keep the 120V x 20 Amps = 2400W equation correct?
You can hopefully see where I am lacking knowledge and help me out, because I really just want to know how to convert all the DC power I can come up with (and I can make as many panels as I need), to an end result of 120V A/C @ 200 amps.
Thanks for your time, I know this was a lengthy and somewhat drawn out question.
Alright, if solar panels arent supposed to run a house, why not? You can get a 2.5kW Diesel Generator that can power a whole house, so why cant 2.5kW of solar power power a house? Watts are Watts right? just a matter of converting the energy to useful power??
Can you help me with this solar application?
First off, I’m just learning the ropes of electricity, solar energy, batteries, wiring batteries in series and parallel, AC, DC, DC to AC Conversion and all that. But I do have the same need of energy as everyone else and a strong interest in finding ways to make my life a little less power plant needy because I have 6 kids and every penny counts. So I’m thinking of ways to start powering each kids room directly solar. I know allot of people start and want to power the whole house from the get go. I’m taking a different more budget able approach my powering one room at a time. But I need some input to get my head wrapped around the project. So for now I will ask advice on my first step of the grand overall idea of the project. ROOM 1.
Room 1(my room)=
Qty 1- 60″ digital projection TV — run time 8 hours a day
Qty 1- 12v WD TV LIVE media player
Qty 1- Digital Alarm clock
I have access to a plentiful amount of 12v car batteries. I have 3 pallets of these on hand.
I have found affordable 12v 150mA solar panels and plan to buy multiple of these to mount in a panel on the roof.
So this is what I need help with…
1. How many of these fully charged 12 batteries will I need to have arranged to run the stated time period?
2. In what way do I need to arrange them — How many series and parallel?
3. How many of the 12v 150mA Solar panels will I need to run in parallel in order to charge all the batteries enough to keep up with the demand of the application?
4.From the batteries to the power strip to plug everything in I will need a DC to AC Inverter right? What should I get that would suite this?
I figure If I can get my room self reliant then I can do the other rooms one at a time. I’m not worried about lighting and such at the moment. That can remain the same as it is for now.
Thank you for any of your help in the matter. Looking forward to hear your input.
Your major power consumer will be the TV which may need anywhere from 200 to 500 watts depending on it’s type. The clock might rely on the frequency of it’s power source being exact if it is to maintain accurate time. While it requires only a few watts, it may need a much more expensive inveter. The TV Live only needs a few watts. You would probably want an inverter that is capable of delivering 1000 watts. It’s entirely possible that it would be more efficient at converting 500 watts than one rated at 500 watts maximum would be.
A 500 watt TV running for 8 hours would consume 4 kWh. A typical car battery rated at 90 minutes reserve capacity will have about 0.4 kWh of energy stored in it. You would need a minimum of 10. Car batteries aren’t intended to be run nearly flat on a daily basis and you may get only a few weeks of service life out of them. They will last far longer if you only use about 10% of their capacity. That would indicate 100 batteries.
How you wire them will depend on your inverter. If the input is 12 volts, all your batteries would be paralleled. 100 (or even 10) batteries in parallel can deliver dangerously high fault currents if something goes wrong. One shorted cell within just one battery could create a major meltdown or fire. Fusing each battery separately may be necessary.
Each of your solar panels will produce a little less than 2 watts under peak conditions and probably average about half of that during an average summer day for 10 hours. That means that each panel will contribute about 0.01 kWh towards your daily requirement. Assuming that your charging and inverting systems are 100% efficient (they won’t be), you would need about 400 panels.
With 6 kids you might want look into a solar hot water system instead. Such a system would be far more likely to save you some money.
The link below will let you download a free sample issue of Homepower Magazine. You’ll find the lead story in that issue to be well worth reading.
Don
How many watts does my solar panel need to be if I am running lights only at night?
I want to use 12vDc rope lighting that is 3 watts per foot and i am looking to use approx 64 ft of light. I am probably only going to have the lights on for 3-4 hours at night. I will be running the lights off a 12 volt car battery. What wattage will my solar panel need to be to recharge the battery during the day. I would appreciate any help, Thank You! I am also looking at led lighting that is only 0.8 watt per foot.
Here is the math.
3W/ft * 64 ft = 192W
4hr * 192W = 768Whr < --- energy needed per day
768Whr / 12v = 64Ahr
64Ahr * 200%(d-rate) = 128Ahr <--- Your battery needs to be a minimum 128 Amp - Hour to opperate without damaging itself.
At Boise, Idaho — Latitude: 43.6 we get 5 sun hours per day average
If your latitude is less than that, your sun hours will likely be greater.
768Whr / 5hr = 153.6W ~ 160W panel required.
I highly recommend that you get a charge controller in addition to this panel, as it will protect your batteries and enable charging during low light conditions. Some even come with automatic light timers and or motion sensors:
http://www.aurorapower.net/products/list/1/categoryid/13/level/a.aspx
For more information on solar electric components and layout visit: http://www.aurorapower.net/alternative-energy/solar-electric.aspx
Hope that helps!
How many volts/amps do I need to power (constantly) a pair of small computer speakers?
I’m planning on making a small solar speaker system for my backpack, so I can listen to music without having to worry about batteries and such. What do I need to do to make something like that? I have small old stereo computer speakers, lots of spare headphones, and I can find small solar light panels.
I would say no less than 5 watts, 10 watts practically.
The low voltage side of the amplifier probaly uses 9 to 12V.